Delays and the First Days in Nicaragua

On January 11^th, forty-four Peace Corps volunteers showed up at the Holiday Inn in Arlington to start staging and prepare to leave later that night at about 1:30 am.  We were joined in the hotel by volunteers leaving for Panama.  At around 10:30 pm we found out that the flight had been canceled due to possibility of inclement weather.  Essentially the plane we were meant to leave on had not arrived in Reagan during the night due to the weather and hence we were stuck.  On the 12^th we woke to find clear streets, brisk weather and a little snow on the ground.

            One of the big tenants of being a Peace Corps volunteer is being flexible and we learned that immediately.  While our staging staff spent many hours and I’m sure a few sleepless nights trying to get us onto a plane, we were left on the 12^th to entertain ourselves.  Since we were so close to DC, a large group of us decided to go into town.

           

Of course I had to visit Ben’s Chili Bowl one more time.

                                                                                  

            The next day on the 13^th we were given condensed training in Spanish, medical aspects of our job and safety.  The night of the 13^th, or I suppose the early morning of the 14^th (at 1:30 am) we left for the airport, caught a plane to Georgia and subsequently a plane out of the country

Officially leaving the US - flying over Key West

over the ocean

flying over Nicaraguan soil

about to land

 At the airport we were received my Peace Corps Nicaragua staff and current volunteers from the country who led us across the street to our beautiful hotel.  We were told to enjoy as this would be one of the few times that we would enjoy such luxuries.

Life without luxuries - coming soon

            As I’m writing this, it is 1:40 pm (Nica time) and we are just about to be told the location of our training sites.  The forty-four of us will be split up into various groups of 3-4 based on our Spanish competency and placed into training communities where we will live and learn for 11 weeks.

Drum roll please…

I’ll write again when I’m settled in!